July 12, 2006
Apparently Cameroon was not entirely pro-Italy during the World Cup Final. According to Matteo, many of the Cameroonians he was watching with were supporting France.
Well, maybe supporting France isn’t the correct phrase. Matteo kept trying to reason with the Cameroonians about their rooting interests. He pointed to colonization and support for the corrupt government currently in power as reasons to root for Italy (it was apparently very important to him). The Cameroonians replied that they weren’t necessarily rooting for France. They were rooting for Africa and the Africans on the team.
For those of you who didn’t watch the World Cup – as I said, we didn’t watch the Finals, but we saw a France game in Paris – most of the French team was black. “Are there any white people on the team?” I remember Rebecca asking while we watched the France-Spain match.
There were a couple of white French players on the team that I can remember – the goalie and one striker. Zinadine Zidane is of Algerian descent, but born in France. I’m not certain where the rest of the French team was born – I’m sure some of them were born in France – but most of them appeared to be African.
Anyway, back to my story. Matteo then pointed out that on top of exploiting all of the other resources Africa has, the French were also stealing the football talent. That didn’t matter. France was now an African team.
But I don’t doubt that many Cameroonians were pulling for Italy. I think, however, rooting interests might have fallen along linguistic lines. Charles, the other writer husband in Yaoundé, pointed out that France was the power behind the decision to change Cameroon from a federal republic to a unitary republic in the early 1970s.
Cameroon was two separate colonies – one French, the other British – after Germany lost control of its African colonies at the end of World War I. The French colony was granted full independence first, in 1960. British Cameroon followed in 1961. The colony had a choice to join either Cameroon or Nigeria. The southern, mostly Christian half chose Cameroon in a referendum (Charles, who was in Cameroon at the time, says it was because British Cameroon was so far from Lagos, then Nigeria’s capital, the Anglophone Cameroonians banked on getting better government services from Yaoundé. Northern British Cameroon, which is mostly Muslim, stuck with Nigeria). The two Cameroons agreed to a federation, with a fair amount of autonomy for the former British colony.
A referendum in 1972 made Cameroon a unitary republic, which meant that Anglophone Cameroon lost its autonomy and began to lose much of its status within the country. Money stopped and services dropped and Anglophones have been pissed off ever since.
So why does this mean Anglophone Cameroon was rooting for Italy? Even after colonization ended, until recently, the French were in control here. (Now the U.S. is the most important country to Cameroon, much to French consternation.) French troops were actively involved in fighting against Cameroon’s one full-fledged insurgency, from 1961-63. They actually won!
Yaoundé and Douala, the commercial capital, are sort of model cities for the French to show off their good works in Africa. For a long time, no important decision was taken in Cameroon without French consent. Often, the ideas came directly from Paris. So it is likely that the French had a large hand in the 1972 referendum, and the Anglophones know this.
My theory is that French foreign policy is mostly based on stopping the spread of English as the dominant world language. That’s why I think they supported the genocidal regime in Rwanda (the RPF rebels, now government, were Anglophone). But an even better example of my theory is Cameroon. They actually changed the country’s constitution to make sure that Anglophones in the country did not gain more power. An Anglophone may have won the first contested presidential election in the early 1990s, but President Paul Biya rigged it, probably with French support.
Odelia, by the way, is Anglophone, from around Bamenda, the largest city in the northwest part of the country. That’s the former British colony. She was cheering for the Azzurri, not Les Bleus.
Apparently Cameroon was not entirely pro-Italy during the World Cup Final. According to Matteo, many of the Cameroonians he was watching with were supporting France.
Well, maybe supporting France isn’t the correct phrase. Matteo kept trying to reason with the Cameroonians about their rooting interests. He pointed to colonization and support for the corrupt government currently in power as reasons to root for Italy (it was apparently very important to him). The Cameroonians replied that they weren’t necessarily rooting for France. They were rooting for Africa and the Africans on the team.
For those of you who didn’t watch the World Cup – as I said, we didn’t watch the Finals, but we saw a France game in Paris – most of the French team was black. “Are there any white people on the team?” I remember Rebecca asking while we watched the France-Spain match.
There were a couple of white French players on the team that I can remember – the goalie and one striker. Zinadine Zidane is of Algerian descent, but born in France. I’m not certain where the rest of the French team was born – I’m sure some of them were born in France – but most of them appeared to be African.
Anyway, back to my story. Matteo then pointed out that on top of exploiting all of the other resources Africa has, the French were also stealing the football talent. That didn’t matter. France was now an African team.
But I don’t doubt that many Cameroonians were pulling for Italy. I think, however, rooting interests might have fallen along linguistic lines. Charles, the other writer husband in Yaoundé, pointed out that France was the power behind the decision to change Cameroon from a federal republic to a unitary republic in the early 1970s.
Cameroon was two separate colonies – one French, the other British – after Germany lost control of its African colonies at the end of World War I. The French colony was granted full independence first, in 1960. British Cameroon followed in 1961. The colony had a choice to join either Cameroon or Nigeria. The southern, mostly Christian half chose Cameroon in a referendum (Charles, who was in Cameroon at the time, says it was because British Cameroon was so far from Lagos, then Nigeria’s capital, the Anglophone Cameroonians banked on getting better government services from Yaoundé. Northern British Cameroon, which is mostly Muslim, stuck with Nigeria). The two Cameroons agreed to a federation, with a fair amount of autonomy for the former British colony.
A referendum in 1972 made Cameroon a unitary republic, which meant that Anglophone Cameroon lost its autonomy and began to lose much of its status within the country. Money stopped and services dropped and Anglophones have been pissed off ever since.
So why does this mean Anglophone Cameroon was rooting for Italy? Even after colonization ended, until recently, the French were in control here. (Now the U.S. is the most important country to Cameroon, much to French consternation.) French troops were actively involved in fighting against Cameroon’s one full-fledged insurgency, from 1961-63. They actually won!
Yaoundé and Douala, the commercial capital, are sort of model cities for the French to show off their good works in Africa. For a long time, no important decision was taken in Cameroon without French consent. Often, the ideas came directly from Paris. So it is likely that the French had a large hand in the 1972 referendum, and the Anglophones know this.
My theory is that French foreign policy is mostly based on stopping the spread of English as the dominant world language. That’s why I think they supported the genocidal regime in Rwanda (the RPF rebels, now government, were Anglophone). But an even better example of my theory is Cameroon. They actually changed the country’s constitution to make sure that Anglophones in the country did not gain more power. An Anglophone may have won the first contested presidential election in the early 1990s, but President Paul Biya rigged it, probably with French support.
Odelia, by the way, is Anglophone, from around Bamenda, the largest city in the northwest part of the country. That’s the former British colony. She was cheering for the Azzurri, not Les Bleus.
posted by Evan Weinberger at 8:01 AM
3 Comments:
This is interesting. While buying ice at the deli 'round the corner during the Cup final, I overheard a man explaining that he couldn't root for France because of their colonial history. He punctuated his argument by saying, "Most of the players on the squad are African, anyway." I think he was annoyed that in addition to past wrongs, the French were now raiding their old colonial stomping grounds for futbol talent.
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